How can anyone let this happen!!!

My opinion: a reputable manager would have fired these guys as a client. A manager can't legally perform the duties of the board or contradict the board's instructions, even if it's clear that the board doesn't know their hm-hm from a hole in the ground.

All of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the owners. This is what it means to own property and what happens if you choose to run your property into the ground.

Best case scenario would have been a corporate investor buying up units and converting the property to rentals. The fact that none of them did - apparently - suggests that even they didn't see any value in doing so. This goes along with the condemnation - property worth saving should have gone into receivership or been bought up.

In a related note...

The manager of a large condo community in my area has sent a letter to all residents - I assume at the instruction of the board - saying that state law requires a homeowner vote to allow the board to reduce the contribution to the reserves. Otherwise OMG the monthly assessment will go up to umpty-willion dollars!!

First, props to the board and/or manager for even being aware of state law. However...

This is how it begins.

They can't afford to properly fund the reserves (I'm assuming that they'll get the 51% they need for approval. So one wonders how they plan to afford special assessments or loans, which are just more expensive ways to handle reserve spending.

No doubt they'll start to neglect maintenance instead and do half-@$$ed repairs.

Knowledgeable buyers will begin to steer clear - in part because lenders will be giving the community some side-eye. So over time they'll be left with owners who don't really care.

Would it be surprising that condemnation could be in their future? Or receivership? Or de-conversion to a rental property? I hope it's one of the latter - it's a nice community in a nice area, and it deserves better than what it's getting from the owners. Or a group of owners say "oh h311 no" and decide to reverse course.

But this seems to be the natural lifecycle of condo communities. A bright shiny new community goes up, the owners run it into the ground eventually, the vultures swoop in, and the community is off to whatever passes for an afterlife for such developments. It's a shame, it's such a waste - but we're up against human nature and economics, which seem to be more visible in condos than in single-family home HOAs.

What Cathy said- 1000%

I must say I haven't seen this level of ineptitude in my community. The closest happened several years ago when a townhouse community in my area nearly got its water shut off due to not paying the bill. They had a huge problem with delinquencies and so didn't have enough to pay much of anything. The water was on one meter, meaning those who did pay had to indirectly subsidize those who didn't- and there weren't enough. One day everyone found disconnect notices on their door and had about a week to cone up with the money.

I believe they did come up with the money (and the water company came up with some sort of payment plan) and the community is still up and running. Hopefully, they converted the meter system to where everybody would now be responsible for their own bill - and I suspect they're still paying for that - on top of even higher assessments.

I agree with Cathy that a responsible property manager would have dumped this bunch. I might have sent a notice to everyone with an observation on the water system and a warning that if the board didn't get its shit together, the entire community would be at risk of condemnation. A copy of that letter might have gone to the utility company as well - maybe that would light a fire underneath these people.

Bottom line to anyone who owns a home, HOA or not: This is YOUR home and no one will ever care about it as much as you. You're the one who chose to buy it and ultimately YOU are responsible for taking care of it. Some people simply aren't capable of doing what's necessary and others don't want the responsibility and you find out pretty quickly what side you're on. If you don't want to do the work, don't buy a home-

I know several people who sold their homes during the 2008 real estate meltdown (anyone remember that?) and they concluded they were happier renting and letting someone else do the donkey work. That's fine, but homeowners have to stop assuming they can just pay assessments and go on about their business, regardless of what the developer or realtor tells you. It's when people tell you, "oh, don't worry about whatever" that you need to find out if that's really true.

You can yell all you want about the property manager not doing or should be doing X, Y or Z, not to mention the board, association attorney, your state legislature, and on and on, but sooner or later, you have to get off your ass, start asking questions and demanding answers, then roll up your sleeves and get to work caring for your own damned home. It can be a drag and take time and money away from whatever you'd prefer to do, but that's how it goes when you own something.

Yes, and considering howHOA communities are still built out, it's becoming more difficult to find a house that isn't in a HOA. People may have to choose between getting that dream house or accept that HOA living requires a bit more involvement than what they want or were led to believe.

What's so interesting about the "I'm not going to be here in 10 or 20 years anyway,so why should I pay for something I'll never use argument" is that they never use this argument in other areas of their lives like retirement planning. You may or may not outlive your money,but you go ahead and save and invest anyway because you have a vision of what you'd like your retirement to look like and know you need to p,an because you don't know what your health will be like or if you want to move (or have to move for some reason.) We all know about doing this or that upgrade to our homes so we an increase property values. We don't know when we might move,but want to get more money than what we paid - why else do we remodel our kitchen or replace the furnace?

But long term thinking seems to be diminishing in today's society because it's easier to put off hard decisions, thinking it'll be someone else's problem or something somewhere will save us from ourselves. Or these things only happen to other people and won't happen to us because, well, we are....

A manage follows direction of the Board. If the board determined the bats were owner responsibility and took no action to force the owners to correct the issue, what do you want the manager to do?

Absent a board directive with teeth, most landlords who own condo units will do nothing.

We just had our quarterly meeting a few weeks ago, we had to raise assessments yet again after raising them a few dollars last year. This assessment
increase is near the NRS 116 threshold of 15%. Our recent reserve study calls for higher cost to complete the recommended items. It's a necessary
evil to keep money in the coffers to prevent situations just like these.

Is this just bad board decisions combined with poor PMC guidance? Could this be a ploy to rid the property of low income residents to curry favor
for gentrification?

The only two post I have seen on ND, I get the impression that they are renters and not owners. They are kind of in the cat bird seat
if they want to legally break their lease with no consequence. Then again, they are in the cat bird seat for their land lord being responsible
to pay for their accommodations if the city does condemn the property. Someone did post that recommendation.

It looks like the City of Henderson is going to front the cost of the sewer remediation.
Hopefully the unit owners are not too severely impacted finacially to the point they lose their home
to foreclosure.

https://www.ktnv.com/news/city-will-front-costs-to-update-water-system-in-somerset-park-henderson-mayor-says

As you all know or should know, the manager works under the direction of the board.
The manager can't force the board, only make recommendations.
If the Board does not follow the recommendations of the Board with respect to vendors, projects, budget etc., then before all hell breaks loose, either the manger leaves the property and/or the management company fires the Association.

The art of managing condominiums 30 years and older is extremely challenging as many of us managers are dealing with maintenance which has been kicked down the road by owners who didn't fund reserves properly. The Milestones and SIRS have caused a domino effect of hate for managers/association management firms who didn't cause the past years maintenance issues that have now surfaced.

I've personally been in this position and left on-sites and portfolios because the boards refused to listen to my recommendations & also left a big management firm that bought out the company I worked for because I didn't want my reputation ruined because the big firm wasn't getting my vendors paid and was not transparent with my portfolio boards.

The balancing act is sometimes like working the clown act in a circus but the show must go on...